interview prep

While I feel pretty confident in my interview skills (see some tips here), they’re kind of like chocolates, in that you can never have too many! Looking forward to my trip on Friday, my mom sent me a link to a very helpful blog post from the Times Union online. I am familiar with a lot of the listed interview questions (or have been asked them in real life!), but here are a few that I found particularly compelling:

13. What changes would you make to your college or university?

24. How do you spend college vacations?

44. What have you done to improve yourself during the last year?

45. What are your pet peeves?

One of the trickiest parts of answering an interview question, including those listed above, is walking that fine line. Not the fine line between truth and honesty (please, always be truthful because people can see right through that!!), but the fine line between supporting what you know and believe and accepting what you don’t know and could be persuaded to believe. It’s important to be respectful of your interviewer, but don’t feed them answers you think that they “want” to hear because often times that’s exactly what they don’t want to hear. At the end of the day, they want to get to know you, and, ultimately, all you know how to be is yourself.

My name is Catherine Elizabeth Ziac (Cat, for short) and I am a senior at Union College in Schenectady, NY. When I'm not studying for my major in economics or my minor in Russian, you can find me skimming through catalogs, playing the flute, fishing, online window shopping, chatting with my sisters (my twin, Julia, studying physics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, or my little sister Maddy, currently a senior in high school), or out and about in good old Schenectady with my wonderful Union friends! I love pink nails, long showers, office supplies, and going to the public library. I spend too much time looking at blogs and skimming the WSJ online, but I still believe in the merits of a hand-written letter. I am always in the mood for yogurt and granola and am never without a piece of gum. I usually answer "blue" when asked my favorite color, but I know in my heart that it's always been and always will be garnet!